For EVERYONE who calls on the NAME of the LORD will be SAVED!!!
How will they call on him in whom they have not BELIEVED? And how are they to believe in whom they have never HEARD? And how are they to hear without someone PREACHING? And how are they to preach unless they are SENT? As it is written…
How will they call on him in whom they have not BELIEVED? And how are they to believe in whom they have never HEARD? And how are they to hear without someone PREACHING? And how are they to preach unless they are SENT? As it is written…
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the GOOD NEWS!
I always thought a call to missions to be some “divine – there’s a bush on fire – hey, that angel is talking to you – a whale just swallowed me and spit me out” type story. Mine is a little less cinematic… but just as divine as the above stated! It came in a series of “hits”. Anytime God deals with your heart, it’s like taking a huge punch in the gut from a mountain of love. Here’s how God 1-2 punched me into having a heart for Him and His people!
I graduated from college with a teaching certificate in physical education. I had NO IDEA what I wanted to do with it… teach? coach? overseas missions? go be a professional mascot for some pro team? teach abroad? I had more questions that answers. My journey to missions started in interviewing and receiving a teaching and coaching job in a small rural town in Fairfield, Texas. Within a few months, I was plugged into a church that began to nurture a heart that would move beyond the walls of the barn she lived in… beyond the boundaries of Texas and the United States… beyond comfort… beyond a selfish faith… pretty much BEYOND.
HIT #1 (The Jab)
When you’re in college, and you’re taking tons of classes on curriculum design, seating arrangement, behavioral issues, etc… no one EVER prepares you for the kids hearts that you see every day! God’s word repeatedly mentions the poor, unlovely, impoverished, stinky, unruly, untouchable, annoying, sick, damaged people as being the one’s that He came to save. I have access to these girls 8 hours a day! God showed me my mission field in a place that I thought was a waiting room for a bigger, fancier, more distinguished calling. This is the present ministry that the Lord has given me to receive! It wasn’t until the beginning of this teaching year that I truly began to see my students with the eyes of Jesus… and here’s why…
HIT #2 (The Hook)
This is a conversation had between myself and a very close friend and mentor named Regina.
Regina- “Hey, you wanna go to Haiti?”
Me- “Go where? Hades? No… Why would you ask me that?”
Regina- “Haiti… the country.”
Me- “Oh… Okay.”
Okay, there were a few more words and one or two sour looks (I thought she said Hades and took that offensively)… but that was the “jist” of my first overseas missions call! Regina is the youth pastor, and moreover, one of my closest friends and mentors in Fairfield. She wanted to check out a ministerial connection with a missions organization that presides in Leogane, Haiti. In June 2009, we took off for a week long trip to the poorest country in the western hemisphere. I had no idea what I was getting into. It was here that God showed me the cry of His people. I felt dirty in the middle of poverty… like everyone in that country could see right through my clean white skin to the apathetic, wealthy, pleasure sucker that I was. Oh man… Haiti left a stain on me. It was a reality check to my weak faith and the severity that apathy has on us as Americans. I got to see divine healing… I got to feed the poor and hungry… I got to touch and love the diseased. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was living the words Christ commanded to His people.
HIT #3 (The Upper-Cut)
India. Two weeks after Haiti, another good friend of mine mentioned a possible trip to India over Thanksgiving. I JUMPED face first into the opportunity. God began changing and rearranging my heart through this trip. I was one of a team of eleven from Fairfield that ventured half-way around the world to help build a wall for an orphanage that was needing to relocate to allow growth and protection. Through God’s TOTAL provision, ample funds were raised… all the while God tearing down the walls of who I thought He was. My family also began to change… my sisters began helping me raise funds and praying for me… my mom and dad began to learn how to pray for a daughter as a missionary and sister in Christ… the church I grew up in began to pulse with prayer and encouragement, giving as the widow gave her two mites! God flexed His muscles of love, grace, and sovereignty. God whispered to my heart to be still, fix my eyes upon Himself, to die is to gain and there’s nothing else worth living for than His love.
HIT #4 (The THUMP… Me Hitting the Floor in Surrender)
RESTLESSNESS: I struggle to put into words the feeling I have inside that has lead me to seek out to love in eleven different countries with 7 strangers, a backpack, and a Bible. I’ve given up my dreams. I’ve given up security. I’ve given up everything I have ever held onto that wasn’t clothing Jesus. I can’t live this lie of “living”. As I fight to learn how to have beautiful feet, I rest in the goodness of Christ’s shadow and must have faith that God is exactly who He says He is in scripture! That’s why missions is so crazy to me! I’m just a normal person… like any ole guy mending nets on a boat. The only thing special about me is the treasure I hold in my clay-pot heart! For the next year… journey with me in prayer and encouragement to live out the Great Commission overseas!!!
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The Race has already started…..
